Oh... you are so lucky! We had dinner with our neighbors (yes, the Orange, Tomato and Avocado Salad and the Bistecca alla Florentina neighbors!). And now, I have a new recipe to share. For our appetizer we ate figs stuffed with goat cheese, wrapped in proscuitto and grilled. They brought the recipe back from California where they were introduced to this new-to-us preparation of figs.

Of course, I couldn't wait to make it myself. You will need fresh figs (I bought a box of about 25 at Whole Foods), fresh goat cheese, proscuitto, olive oil and freshly ground black pepper. Cut a small section from the side of each fig; take some of the goat cheese and press into this small cavity. Wrap a long, narrow slice of proscuitto firmly around the fig (you want to do your best at keeping the goat cheese inside the fig while grilling), and skewer. Right before grilling, drizzle with olive oil and season with lots of the freshly ground pepper. Grill over a low flame. I found that you want to turn the skewered figs as little as possible to keep them intact. I may even slide the skewers into one of those flipable grill baskets the next time. The saltiness of the proscuitto and sweetness of the figs is a delicious match.

Eileen, you truly are a masterful cook and you have elevated one of my favorite recipes for figs to loftier heights. Where you use prosciutto, I low-brow it with bacon. Doesn't matter, as either is perfection. Your use of skewers is brilliant and I shall employ that technique from hence forth.

Prosciutto di San Daniele and fichi, I know them from Italy, but your recipes sounds devine, I shall have to try it as long as the figs are still available fresh around here!

I grilled half figs the other night, then served them with Roquefort cheese on top. Here too, the sweetness of the figs and the tangy cheese, melting just a little bit into the almost caramelized figs, were a treat.

Regarding the sparrow and the meringue:Eileen, it was all your fault! I had read your post about meringues and simply had to have a slice of lemon meringue tart and got the sparrow on top of it! Merci! :-)